


Just One of Many

by NellieOleson



Category: Stargate SG-1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 18:33:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3660807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NellieOleson/pseuds/NellieOleson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was sure she used to be smarter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just One of Many

**Author's Note:**

> I've been re-watching season 5. :) I kind of see this as a prequel to my Every Other Day fic but it can be read by itself.

Sam slid between her cool sheets and pulled the comforter up to her neck. April was a little early for open windows, but she’d always preferred to sleep in a cool room. The nighttime suburban soundtrack the breeze carried through her bedroom was oddly comforting. Field work had taught her to filter out the noises that weren’t likely to kill her.

She stared at the ceiling and replayed the day’s events in her mind. They weren’t exactly relaxing but having something specific to focus on kept her mind from wandering. Her eyes were just drifting shut when she heard a car rumbling down her street. It stopped in front of her house, and Sam sat up immediately. Field work had taught her that too. She’d been a heavy sleeper before the SGC. 

They hadn’t finished clearing the base until nearly midnight. It was far too late for anyone with good intentions to be dropping by. She grabbed her gun from the nightstand and listened to the car idle. It sounded like a loud and poorly maintained relic from the days of the carburetor. 

She couldn’t see the street from her window, but the sound of the car door slamming closed was clear. Sam made her way to the front of the house in the dark and waited. Bursting out the front door with a gun was probably a bad idea. There was still a chance that the car had nothing to do with her.

It wasn’t long before there were heavy footsteps outside her door and soft knocking that quickly grew loud and impatient. 

She reached out and turned the deadbolt as slowly as possible. She’d only get one chance to take her visitor by surprise. The deadbolt slid silently into the door, and she was reaching for the doorknob when Colonel O’Neill’s voice shouted from the other side.

“Carter! It’s me,” he yelled. “Let me in.” 

She opened the door with her gun drawn. Colonel O’Neill already had his hands up, because he wasn’t stupid. She looked over his shoulder at the late model Buick sitting on the street. “Sir? What are you doing here?” She looked at the car again. “And who is that”

“Some guy.” Colonel O’Neill turned and gave the car a thumbs-up signal. The driver honked the horn enthusiastically and drove away. “Joe, maybe? He gave me a ride.”

Sam turned on the porch light and took a closer look at Colonel O’Neill. His shirt was untucked and his cheeks were red. And although she wouldn’t have thought it possible, his hair was more ruffled than usual.

“Are you drunk?”

“Yes. A little.” 

Sam grabbed his arm and pulled him inside before her neighbors thought to call the cops. She wasn’t the only light sleeper on the block. Colonel O’Neill followed her into the living room and watched her turn on a lamp. She blinked and squinted against the light. He didn’t seem to notice it. 

“Why are you here?” she asked.

She watched him, waiting for an answer she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to hear. He ran his hands over his face and poked at a dead plant on the mantel before turning to face her. Jack had never been much for sharing his feelings, but this was as uncomfortable as she’d ever seen him. “I need you-” He paused there and Sam felt her stomach drop when he grabbed her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. “To tell me I did the right thing,” he finished.

It took her a moment to switch gears. This was something she could deal with. Daniel had still been pissed and argumentative during the debriefing, accusing Jack of being incapable of making a decision that didn’t involve shooting or blowing stuff up. 

Sam hadn’t questioned Colonel O’Neill’s decision at all. Not just because he was her commanding officer. She’d certainly disagreed with him in the past. 

He let go of her shoulders and flopped onto the couch. Sam sat next to him, closer than she normally would have. Their thighs were almost touching. It was strange, seeing this side of him. He worked so hard to hide it, or at least to not acknowledge it. She wondered how many other layers of him she was unaware of. “I think you did the right thing, sir.”

“Daniel doesn’t.”

“Daniel is an idealist,” she said. Not that it was a bad thing. Sometimes they needed that, because Daniel wasn’t exactly wrong about Jack’s default being to shoot and blow things up. Daniel just had a hard time accepting that in their line of work, they didn’t have always have time to make the best decisions. Sometimes they were just stuck with the least bad decision. “We don’t live in an ideal world.”

“I could have waited.” 

Sam wondered if this kind of self-doubt happened more than she knew. Maybe Daniel was the one who normally got these late night visits. Had he shown up there after Euronda? “And she could have killed him,” she said.

“Yeah. I just-” He stared into the corner and shook his head. “Fuck, Carter. I don’t know.”

“It’s my fault you were even in that situation. We could have studied Reese on her own planet. Or not activated her.” Or so many other things. She picked up his hand and held it between her own. It was a small gesture, inadequate, but it was all she could offer. “We all make decisions that we regret in hindsight.”

He slipped his fingers between hers and squeezed her hand. “Thanks, Carter,” he said. “I-” He paused and frowned at the room. “I should go.”

Sam thought that wasn’t entirely true, because what he should have done was to not show up at her house. But he was there now, and it was late. “Are you planning on walking?”

“Yeah, I guess.” 

Calling a cab probably never occurred to him. He seemed to be in the mood to punish himself, and Sam decided sending him home to brood might not be in his best interest. Letting him sleep on the couch was probably safer. “Stay,” she said. “I’ll take you to get your truck in the morning.”

Jack was coming out of the bathroom when she came back with a pillow and blanket. His hair was damp and he looked more alert. “How long do you think Daniel will be mad at me?”

“About this or just in general?”

“Both.”

“I don’t know.”

“This job sucks sometimes.” He took the pillow out of her hand and made a show of fluffing it up. “Actually, it sucks all the time.”

“Wow, you’re not a fun drunk at all.”

“Nope,” he agreed. “I’m more of a brutally honest drunk.” The pillow was as fluffy as it was going to get and he tossed it onto the couch. Sam handed him the blanket, and his fingers brushed her wrist. “And I kind of want you to stay out here with me.”

And that right there was the reason she should have called him a cab. “That’s a terrible idea,” she said. It seemed they were on quite a roll. Just one bad idea after the next: take the robot home, activate the robot, shoot the robot, spend the night on the couch together. She was sure she used to be smarter.

He took her hands and she let him lead her to the couch. “I know,” he said. “But I trust you.”

Terrible idea or not, she sat next to him and let him pull her close. And he had a point, her inhibitions alone would be enough to keep them from doing something they couldn’t undo. At least she hoped they would.

He leaned into the corner and pulled the blanket over her. Sam put her head on his chest and listened while his breathing grew slow and even. She thought he was sleeping when he tightened his grip on her shoulder. “Carter?” he whispered into her hair.

“Hmm?” 

“I’m glad it’s Daniel this time.” 

_This time._ She thought again about Euronda. It had strained their working relationship for weeks. That disappointment in him was not something she ever wanted to feel again, but _me too_ was more of an admission than she was ready to make. She closed her eyes and relaxed a little deeper into him, hoping he’d hear it all the same.


End file.
